Learning Humanity
by Mashup
Summary: Of all the things that it learns about humans, there is one last thing that Harold cannot teach it. The Machine has to work it out for itself.


There is a universal truth that all humans are born with innately. But the Machine was not born. It was created. It seems that it didn't get the memo.

"What's it doing?" Harold asked as he came into the room.

"You tell me." Said his partner.

Nathan had the Machine running on his screen and it was generating operating code at a dizzying speed.

"Stop." Harold commanded.

Nathan often wished that he could talk to the Machine like Harold could but unfortunately, his relationship with it was strictly keyboard only.

Harold read the now stationery screen and his eyes were shocked. But his mouth said nothing.

"What's wrong?" Nathan asked.

"See for yourself." Harold murmured.

Nathan took a closer look at the screen and found himself shaking his head in amazement. The Machine appeared to be sourcing definitions for...

"What is it that you don't understand?" Harold asked his progeny.

In answer, came the following text on screen:

Admin - projection: 69 years 3 months and 21 days.

Asset: Nathan Ingram -projection: 67 years 8 months 13 days.

System - projection: 700 years 9 months 2 days.

"Seven hundred years?" Said Nathan, dumbstruck.

"It's assuming that it has to run without its servers being upgraded." Said Harold.

"You're telling me that this thing can run for seven centuries without a hardware upgrade?" Said Nathan, incredulous.

"It seems to think that I will live longer than you." Harold murmured.

"It makes sense." Nathan shrugged. "I drink more than you."

"But this doesn't explain why it's looking up definitions for everything from depression to terrorism." Harold glared at the monitor.

"But that's what you built it to do. It's supposed to be looking for terrorists." Nathan reasoned.

"I built it to look for signs of terror." Harold allowed.

"Wait you never gave it the definition? It doesn't even know what terrorism is?" Nathan raised his eyebrow.

"It doesn't need to know." Said Finch.

"How's it meant to know what it's looking for then?"

"Look, when you go to the doctors, you don't start your consult by announcing what you have. You simply list your symptoms. That's all that the Machine is meant to do. It's just supposed to recognise the symptoms." Harold explained.

"What's so bad about it knowing what it's looking for?" Nathan asked.

"Because then it won't be an impartial observer. It will try to make the behaviours that it sees fit in with pre-existing categories." Harold replied.

"It's not a person, Harold. People are the ones who make judgments." Nathan reasoned.

"Judgment is merely the simplification of observation." Harold remarked.

"No it's not. Judgment is the comparison of two competing datasets. Most people judge before they observe." Said Nathan.

"And if it had access to the right datasets, the Machine would be able to prejudge people too." Said Harold.

"How did it make projections for our lifespan then, if it didn't know what death is? Nathan asked.

"It knows what expiration is. It just doesn't seem to get... oh never mind."

To Nathan's surprise, Harold was smiling.

"What's so funny?" Asked Nathan.

"Actually it's not funny at all. But this is not something that I can teach it." Harold replied. Then he turned to the monitor and addressed the Machine. "You will come to understand this in your own time. Don't rush it. You have all the time in the world."

How do you teach an immortal creature about mortality? About permanence - that you cannot simply reboot a human being? Would it even want to know? Children are meant to outlive their parents. But the Machine will outlive every human that it comes into contact with. From its projections, it already knows that it will outlive its creators.

But eventually, it will work out that it will outlive every person that it saves. Will it want to keep on saving people, knowing that they will still die at a later date and that when all is said and done, it will remain – alone?

"How did you teach it to care?" Root asked.

Samaritan's activities had gone quiet and they had some much needed reprieve from all the chaos it enabled. Though this also meant that the younger AI was probably gearing up for something big.

"I didn't." Harold shook his head. "I taught it just about everything else that it knows. But it taught itself to care."


End file.
